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Keeping the Faith in Revolutionary Mexico: Clerical and Lay Resistance to Religious Persecution, East Michoacán, 1926-1929*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Matthew Butler
Matthew Butler*
Affiliation:
Churchill College, University of Cambridge
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Extract

This article analyses the character of local religious practice in the archdiocese of Michoacán during Mexico's cristero rebellion, and explores the relationship between ‘official’ and ‘popular’ religion under persecution. In particular, it shows how the Catholic clergy and laity reconstructed the religious life at parish level in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the revolutionary state's campaigns against the Church. For a variety of reasons, the significance of such passive resistance to the state, and the complexity of the interaction between the ecclesiastical elite and the Catholic laity, tend to be downplayed in many existing accounts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many historians see cristero violence as the most important response to religious persecution, and therefore study it to the exclusion of alternative, less visible, modes of resistance. As for the Church, the hierarchy's wranglings with the regime similarly tend to overshadow the labours of priests and their parishioners under persecution. But the full range of popular experiences has also been deliberately compressed for ideological reasons. Many Catholic writers, for instance, seek to exalt the Church by describing a persecution of mythical ferocity. While Calles is likened to Herod, Nero, or Diocletian, the clergy and laity comprise a uniform Church of martyrs designate in revolt against a godless state. To achieve this instructive vision, however, a few exemplary martyrs—such as Father Pro and Anacleto González Flores—are allowed to stand for the whole mass of priests and believers, in the same way that Edmund Campion is revered as the protomartyr of the Elizabethan persecution in England. As a result, a stereotypical but politically serviceable image of a monolithic Church is perpetuated, an image which was recently institutionalised by the canonisation of 25 ‘cristero’ martyrs in May 2000.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , July 2002 , pp. 9 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2002

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank David Brading, Fernando Cervantes, Moisés González Navarro, and the three anonymous journal referees for their comments on earlier versions of this article. The research for this article was made possible by the generous support of the British Academy and Churchill College, Cambridge.

References

1 The cristero rebellion was a Catholic revolt prompted by the Mexican episcopacy's suspension of public worship between July 1926 and June 1929. Public services ended in protest against legislation introduced by president Plutarco Elías Calles which empowered the state to regulate many aspects of public cult.

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3 As in Bailey, David, ¡Viva Cristo Rey! The Cristero Rebellion and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974),Google Scholar often criticised for its ‘elitist’ perspective; María Carreño, Alberto, El Excmo. y Rmo. Sr. Dr. D. Pascual Díaz y Barreta, Arzobispo de México (Mexico City: Ediciones Victoria, 1936);Google Scholar and Barquín, Andrés y Ruiz, , José María González Valencia: Arzobispo de Durango (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1967),Google Scholar detail the most extreme episcopal responses to the religious crisis.

4 For classic martyrologies, see Barquín, Andrés y Ruiz, , El Clamor de la Sangre (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1967);Google Scholar Dragon, Antonio, Vida Intima del Padre Pro (Mexico City: Buena Prensa, 1951);Google Scholar González, Fernando, ‘Anacleto González Flores: Entre el Rechazo de la Violencía y la Exaltación del Martirio,’ in Martínez Assad, Carlos (ed.), A Dios lo que es de Dios, (Mexico City: Nuevo Siglo, 1994), pp. 331–357,Google Scholar is more balanced; for Edmund Campion, the martyrological tradition runs from Challonner's, Richard 1741 Memoirs of Missionary Priests (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1969) pp. 19–31,Google Scholar to Waugh, Evelyn, who explicitly compares Pro to Campion in Edmund Campion (1935. Reprinted, London: Cassell, 1987), p. 5.Google Scholar

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15 Kathryn Bums uses the same term in a very different sense to denote the sacralisation of aspects of the monetary economy of colonial Peru by the Church. See the fascinating study, Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999).

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24 This homily alludes to Romans (8:35–39, 14:17) and 2 Corinthians (13:7–10). For the full text, AAM, Circulares/Edictos, ‘Edicto Cuaresmal,’ Morelia, 2 February 1926.

25 AAM, Circulares/Edictos, ‘A los señores sacerdotes de la Arquidiócesis de Michoacán,’ 23 July 1926.

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32 AAM, Circulares/Edictos, ‘Exhortación al clero,’ Morelia, 18 September 1926.

33 AAM, Circulares, 1927, ‘Instrucción pastoral del Arzobispo de Michoacán,’ Morelia, 11 February 1927; Meyer, , La Cristiada, vol. 1, p. 189;Google Scholar Puntell, , Popular Movements, p. 155.Google Scholar

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35 Vizcaíno, Camberas, Francisco el Grande, vol. 1, p. 362;Google Scholar for the relevant canons, see Abbo, John A. and Hannon, Jerome D., The Sacred Canons: A Concise Presentation of the Current Disciplinary Norms of the Church, 2 vols. (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1952), vol. 1, pp. 749–750,Google Scholar 761–762, vol. 2, pp. 352–355, 360.

36 AAM, Circulares, 1927, untitled circular, dated Morelia, 17 March 1927.

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39 In this tradition, the central distinction between ordained and lay priests remains. Both make the offering of the Eucharist (oblation), but the making of the sacrifice (immolation) corresponds to the ordained priest alone.

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49 The ‘immense majority’ of priests, claims, Meyer, ‘deserted their parishes… the countryside was literally abandoned.’ La Cristiada, vol. 1, p. 37;Google Scholar Quirk, Robert, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910–1929 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973), p. 200.Google Scholar

50 These dates mark the suspension of public worship and the official end of the Church-state conflict.

51 Archivo de la Parroquia de San Francisco de Asís, Tuzantla, (APSFAT), libro de bautismos, tomo 13/folios 133–143; Registro de matrimonios, tomo 1/folio 13; Archivo de la Parroquia de Santiago Tuxpan (APST), libro de bautismos, tomo 47/folios 36-185; actas matrimoniales, tomo 14/folios 6–11; Archivo de la Parroquia de San Juan Bautista, Maravatío (APSJBM), libro de matrimonios, tomo 147/folios 45–200; tomo 148/folios 1–200; tomo 149/folios 1–184; Libro de bautismos, tomo 85/folios 89–203; tomo 86/folios 1–200; Archivo de la Parroquia de San José, Ciudad Hidalgo (APSJ), libro de bautismos, tomo 69/folios 177–200; tomo 70/folios 1–200; Libro de actas matrimoniales, tomo 29/folios 23–38; Archivo de la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, Zitácuaro (APNSR), libro de bautismos, tomo 53/folios 97–203; tomo 54A/folios 1–211; tomo 54B/unnumbered folios; Expedientes matrimoniales, tomo 91 A/folios 20–150.

52 AAM, Particulares, 1927, tomo 1, Pbro. Celso Flores to Pòro. Juan Buitrón, Maravatío, 18 December 1927.

53 Archivo General de la Nación, Dirección General de Gobierno (AGN/DGG), serie 2.347/caja 29/expediente 48, Francisco Goicochea to Adalberto Tejeda, Tlalpujahua, 9 April 1927.

54 For a fascinating study of the political uses of church bells, see Corbin, Alain, Village Bells: Sound and Meaning in the Nineteenth-Century French Countryside (London: Papermac, 1999);Google Scholar for the historical roots of ecclesiastical power in Michoacán, see Alanís, Ricardo León, Los Orígenes del Clero y la Iglesia en Michoacán, 1525–1640 (Morelia: Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 1997), esp. pp. 261–191.Google Scholar

55 AGN/DGG, serie 2.347/caja 29/expediente 50, Ambrosio Macias to Calles, Queréndaro, 27 June 1927.

56 AAM, Parroquiales, Maravatío, 1916–1935, Pbro. Celso Flores to Luis María Martínez, Maravatío, 31 October 1927. Emphasis in original.

57 Archivo General e Histórico del Poder Ejecutivo de Michoacán (AGHPEM), serie religión, caja 2/expediente 8/folio 1, Román Torres, municipal president, to secretario general de gobierno, Zitácuaro, 15 December 1927.

58 AAM, Parroquiales, Indaparapeo, 1916–1954, Pbro. Luis M. Cortés to Pbro. José Aldayturriaga, Indaparapeo, 13 January 1929; Luis María Martínez to Pbro. Luis M. Cortés, Morelia, 16 January 1929.

59 AAM, Remedios, Zitácuaro, 1915–1931, Pbro. Antonio Cancino to Pbro. José Aldayturriaga, Zitácuaro, 1 February 1929.

60 AAM, Asuntos Particulares, 1928, Pbro. Julio Jiménez to Pbro. José Aldayturriaga, Tzitzio, 25 April 1928.

61 AAM, Remedios, Zitácuaro, 1915–1931, expediente 107/folios 28, 47, Pbro. Antonio Cancino to Pbro. José Aldayturriaga, Zitácuaro, 5 and 7 January 1928.

62 APSNR, unclassified court documents signed by the ecclesiastical judge, Pbro. Francisco Rubio, dated 6 December 1926 and 10 January 1927.

63 As argued by Reich, Peter Lester, Mexico's Hidden Revolution: The Catholic Church in Law and Politics since 1929 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995).

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66 AGN/DGG, serie 2.347/caja 29/expediente 1, Gregorio Covarrubias to Calles, Angangueo, 13 August 1926.

67 AAM, Parroquiales, Angangueo, 1915–1939, Pbro. Julio Avilés to Ruiz y Flores, Angangueo, 30 September 1926; telegram, Pbro. Francisco Rubio to Ruiz y Flores, 30 September 1926; Asuntos Particulares, 1926, tomo 1, Pbro. José Garcidueñas to Pbro. Juan B. Buitrón, Mexico City, 12 November 1926.

68 AAM, Parroquiales, Angangueo, 1915–1939, Pbro. Francisco Sánchez to Pbro. José Aldayturriaga, 14 November 1926; Pbro. Trinidad Cruz Barrera to Pbro. Juan B. Buitrón, Angangueo, 7 January 1927.

69 Probably this devotion occurred on 2 August, the traditional date for earning the Portiuncula indulgence, or ‘Pardon of Assisi,’ first granted to St. Francis in 1216. In 1921, Benedict XV made it a daily toties quoties indulgence. New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11, pp. 601–602.

70 AAM, Parroquiales, Angangueo, 1915–1939, expediente 7, Pbro. Medardo Ruiz to Pbro. Juan B. Buitrón, Angangueo, 15 September 1927. Emphasis in original.

71 AAM, Parroquiales, Angangueo, 1915–1939, expediente 7, Pbro. Luis María Martínez to Pbro. Medardo Ruiz, Morelia, 27 September 1927.

72 AAM, Correspondencia, Ciudad Hidalgo, 1917–1943, letters from Pbro. Luis María Martínez to Pbro. Fabián Marínez, Morelia, 28 January 1927; 3 July 1928; Morelia, 6 July 1928.

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79 Interview with Dolores Paz Rueda, Irimbo, 13 July 1997.

80 Greene's Graham famous novel The Power and the Glory (1940; reprinted, London: Penguin, 1990), p. 29, takes place in southeast Mexico, where religious persecution reached its apogee. Greene's priest ‘thought with envy of the men who had died: it was over so soon. They were taken up there to the cemetery and shot against the wall: in two minutes, life was extinct. And they called that martyrdom. Here life went on and on’.